12 July 2010

Prayer is the Work of God

The world is not a machine, a mechanism in which every movement is determined, but a place of life, that has come from a living intelligence, and is impregnated by it, open to the action of God, and borne by a finality of love. In this world in which we live, the effects of prayer are objective and can be verified.

Prayer is a gift of God. From all eternity God has wanted this prayer that I am making here and now, at this point in time, in view of a particular effect, which He has also willed from all eternity.

And yet I make this prayer freely; on my part, it is an act of faith and love that is meritorious. And it is freely that God answers my prayer.

God, by His grace, by the action of His Spirit, inspires me to pray. I pray. God answers my prayer.

Why did God create prayer? In order to bestow the dignity of causality upon His creatures: real causality, placed between an initiative of God and His fulfilment of it.

God in His mercy has freely decreed that it is only with the collaboration of humanity that He will accomplish His plan of salvation: and prayer is an example of this.


~ From the book titled: ‘Interior Prayer’ by a Carthusian ~